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I STRONGLY encourage you to check out the entire article. It is very well done.
Sentence Structure
1. Independent clauses are complete sentences because they have a subject and verb and express a complete thought.
2. Dependent clauses, in contrast, cannot stand alone because they do not express a complete thought—even though they have a subject and a verb.
Independent and dependent clauses can be used in a number of ways to form the four basic types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.
Simple
A simple sentence has one independent clause. That means it has one subject and one verb—although either or both can be compound. In addition, a simple sentence can have adjectives and adverbs. What a simple sentence can't have is another independent clause or any subordinate clauses
Examples:
My mom works for a doctor’s office.
My mom works for a doctor’s office and a bank.
Compound
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. The independent clauses can be joined in one of two ways:
- With a coordinating conjunction: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
- With a semicolon (;)
As with a simple sentence, a compound sentence can't have any subordinate clauses. Here are some compound sentences for your reading pleasure.
Example:
My mom works for a doctor’s office, and she enjoys her responsibilities.
My mom works for a doctor’s office; she enjoys her responsibilities.
Complex
A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The independent clause is called the “main clause.”
Example:
My dad works for a doctor when she needs extra office help.
Compound-Complex
A compound-complex sentence has at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. The dependent clause can be part of the independent clause
Example:
Example:
My dad was excited when he was hired by the doctor’s office, but he likes the work even more than he expected.
You might be thinking, “So what?”
Have you ever evaluated your writing looking for the kind of sentences—one of the four above—and what structure of each sentence has?
Probably not, but don’t feel too bad.
I hadn’t either, until I started working with publicist Sherry Frazier and later with a group of young authors.
Look back at the two sentences that immediately precede this sentence.
What type sentence is each?
Notice that both of them begin with an introductory phrase followed by a comma.
- “Introductory phrase followed by a comma” is a structure that is too common in my early writing.
- It’s still too common in most of my early drafts of current projects.
I encourage you to have one of your pieces of writing handy in two weeks when we'll look at examples and talk about readability and reader engagement.
Next Day in the Life of a Science Fiction Writer:
Follow me on Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor
E-mail: crd.author@gmail.com
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